IOO 
Analyses of Books. 
[February, 
author very sensibly recommends, as a means of rendering the 
museum instructive, the use of conspicuous tablets calling 
attention to the life-history, affinities, and geographical distribu- 
tion of the groups. The dusty, negleCted look of the specimens 
is another legitimate cause of complaint. 
Mr. Higgins denounces also a piece of vulgar obtrusiveness 
which we, too, have remarked with high displeasure. “A friend 
recently informed me that he saw in a museum, representing the 
regard for natural science in a wealthy county, a glass-case con- 
taining, together with specimens of natural history, a remarkably 
small pair of breeches worn by a foreign nobleman who had not 
long before resided in the district.” Any comment on this ab- 
surdity would be an anti-climax. Hence Mr. Higgins is guilty 
of no paradox when he remarks that it is “ the chief duty of the 
managing committee to keep such things out of their museum.” 
The author further rightly considers that no museum is com- 
plete without a biological laboratory, which should be near to, 
though not containing, the marine and fresh-water aquaria. 
The laboratory should be the receptacle for all specimens which 
cannot be properly examined without the aid of the microscope. 
In the section dealing with museum arrangements Mr. Higgins 
admits that “ if a genealogical tree were traced upon the floor, 
and table cases with glass tops for typical specimens were put 
in places indicated by the furcations of the classes, an exceed- 
ingly interesting appliance for giving instruction would thus be 
constituted.” At the same time he is fully aware that to carry 
out this plan would require a very large space ; not to speak of 
the difficulties arising from our hitherto imperfeCt knowledge of 
the phylogeny of animals. 
The lack of space and funds is also the reason why even our 
great national museum has not yet attempted to form, along with 
its systematic collection, a second zoo-geographical collection, 
giving the leading features of the fauna of each country. 
We find next a sketch of some of the relations in which 
invertebrate groups may be illustrated in a museum : — 
“ i. General life-history, including such information pertaining 
to the group as may serve to distinguish it from allied 
groups. This illustration may take the form of a tablet, 
printed in large type. 
“ 2. The body of the group, consisting of specimens typical 
of the families, genera, and species constituting the 
group, preference being given to the most beautiful and 
most significant forms. 
“ 3. British species representative of the group. 
“ 4. Fossils showing the earliest appearance of the group in 
geological time. 
“ 5. Specimens and anatomical preparations of members of 
the group preserved in liquids. 
